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This Week in People’s History, July 11 – 17

Portside
The founders of the Niagara Movement in 1905 ' No accommodation to racism' in 1905. Smoking causes lung cancer in 1957. Nixon on tape, really? in 1973. FBI admits to burglaries in 1975. CIA admits to more bad behavior in 1977. Forgetting about the Civil War 1917. One last nuke test in 1962.

FBI for Abuses Surveillance Tool 278,000+ Times

Jessics Corbett Common Dreams
"The FBI's systematic misuse of these resources proves that it (and the rest of the federal government) simply can't be trusted to wield this sort of power," said one campaigner. "Let 702 die."

Tidbits – Apr. 20, 2023 – Reader Comments: Clarence Thomas = Corrupt; Mifepristone Ruling; Supreme Court “Ethics”; Biden’s Right Turn and 2024; Lula’s Plan: Global Battle Against Trumpism; LBJ vs. MLK; Danger of Nuclear War; AI, Labor, and Tech;

Portside
Reader Comments: Clarence Thomas = Corrupt; Mifepristone Ruling; Supreme Court "Ethics"; Biden's Right Turn and 2024; Lula’s Plan: A Global Battle Against Trumpism; LBJ vs. MLK; Rising Danger of Nuclear War; AI, Labor, Tech; Cartoons; Announcements;

Tidbits – Feb. 23, 2023 – Reader Comments: Derailment = Nationalization; Florida Bans Black History; Earthquake Hits Syria Too; FBI Still Uses Informants; Amazon Labor Union; Charlene Mitchell; Communists in Closets; Building Resilient Organizations

Portside
Reader Comments: Derailment = Nationalization; Florida Bans Black History; Syria Hit by Earthquake, too; FBI Still Uses Informants; Amazon Labor Union; Charlene Mitchell; Communists in Closets; Building Resilient Organizations; Cartoons; more...

Tidbits – Oct. 27, 2022 – Reader Comments, Elections – It’s the Economy, It’s Race and Racism; Supreme Court and Democracy; Climate Change; Fascist Threat; Labor Upsurge; Transatlantic Left Dialogue and Internationalism in Our Time; More…

Portside
Reader Comments: Elections- Economy, Race, Racism; Supreme Court, Democracy; Fascist Threat; Climate Change; Labor Upsurge; Transatlantic Left Dialogue and Internationalism in Our Time-this weekend; International Women's Conference-call papers; more

A Good Life Rule for Leftists: Never Talk to the FBI

Michael Myerson Jacobin
Being a leftist — or worse, a child of leftists — in the mid-20th century meant constant harassment from the FBI. From my childhood in the 1940s and ’50s through the upheavals of the ’60s, I only told them one thing: take a hike.

Lessons from the FBI’s Secret War on Activism

Michael Steven Smith The Indypendent
The FBI had played its role as the “political police of the national government,” Noam Chomsky wrote and the government maintained to the bitter end that it had a right to undermine an organization just because of its ideas.

FBI Tracks & Arrests ‘Black Identity Extremist’ and Hardly Anyone Is Talking About It

David Love Atlanta Black Star
Six months after the FBI issued a report inventing from whole cloth the term Black Identity Extremists — claiming this group poses a terrorist threat to police — the first apparent case of the prosecution of a BIE has emerged. The BIE designation has created concern in the Black community that the FBI is launching a new COINTELPRO program targeting Black activists who have committed no crimes, with more arrests and prosecutions of those involved in racial justice movements to follow.

Pete Seeger in East Berlin, 1967

Victor Grossman The Volunteer (Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives -ALBA)
Pete Seeger, folk singer and activist for peace, civil rights, labor rights and the environment, left us just two years ago - January 27, 2014. Recently, Seeger's FBI file has been released. Included in the file is Pete's correspondence with Victor Grossman. The Editors of The Volunteer, founded by the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, asked Grossman if he had any recollections of Pete's visit to East Berlin in 1967. Here's his story.
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